There are growing calls for the decision over gay marriage to be devolved after the UK Government’s move to “ban” the Church in Wales from carrying them out.

There are growing calls for the decision over gay marriage to be devolved after the UK Government’s move to “ban” the Church in Wales from carrying them out.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood called for the wholesale devolution of the decision over gay marriage to Wales, while the Welsh Liberal Democrats said the Church in Wales should be removed from the draft legislation outlined in the Commons last week, calling the ban “inexplicable”.

The party also said it was “supportive” of calls for the devolution of justice, which includes responsibility over marriage law.

The comments follow a condemnation of the UK Government’s position by the Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan, who said the move was “a step too far”, saying that the quadruple lock system unveiled by Culture Secretary Maria Miller, that banned the two Churches from carrying out ceremonies, came as a “total shock”. He said he had opened talks with the government to lift the ban.

Dr Morgan said he was not suggesting the Church in Wales was ready to conduct gay marriages now, but added: “It wants to be in a position to be able to decide that for itself with its own governing body, not be forced to have this law inflicted on it.”

Plaid leader Leanne Wood said that it was “against the spirit of devolution” that the established Church of England and disestablished Church in Wales were subject to the same rules.

She said: “Disestablishment of the church was the result of a major popular campaign at the start of the 20th century. It is strange that one hundred years later the Church of Wales does not have freedom to make its own choices”

Ms Wood said the issue should at least be part of the deliberations of the Silk Commission, but said: “I would like to see the whole question devolved, so that if there is any question over this Act happening, we can plough ahead in Wales and ensure that people are treated on a basis of equality.”

Plaid, in its submission to the consultation on gay marriage, called for the devolution of responsibility and funding for criminal justice and family law to the National Assembly, which would include responsibility for marriage law, as in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats said that it was in favour of devolution of the justice portfolio generally, which would include the power to legislate over gay marriage.

But its equalities spokesman, Peter Black, said the Church in Wales should be allowed to make its own decision “just like any other disestablished church”, later calling the decision to ban the Church in Wales from carrying out ceremonies “inexplicable”.

He said: “If the Church of England passes its own resolution in Synod to opt-in then that becomes part of canon law and amends the law of the land. The Church in Wales does not have that option – and if it decides to opt-in requires another Act of Parliament to implement its decision.

“There is a clear inequity here that needs to be addressed by removing the Church in Wales from the legislation and allowing it to proceed on the basis of any other church.”

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, speaking in a personal capacity, said he supported the legislation that the UK Government had produced to “facilitate the extension of the right to marry to everyone in our country”.

Andrew RT Davies had already tweeted support for gay marriage, saying: “The best thing to happen in my life was to meet and marry my wife, it cannot be right to deny two people in love the same feeling.”

But he said that the other parties’ calls for devolution were “way off the mark” and there were other more pressing issues for AMs to consider.

The UK Government made the surprise announcement in a bid to assuage fears of religious figures that the churches would be subject to legal challenges if they refused to carry out gay weddings.

Other religious organisations will be able to “opt in” to holding ceremonies, but as the Church of England and Church in Wales had “explicitly” stated strong opposition, the government said, they would not be included.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that it does not comment on calls for further devolution, but stressed that the Church in Wales could enter into discussions with the UK Government if it wished to carry out ceremonies in future.

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